BCCI will look to organise women’s IPL, but it’s important to have stronger domestic structure: Saba Karim

Former Indian cricketer Saba Karim said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India will be whole-heartedly trying to organise Women’s IPL going into the future. However, he also stated that a strong domestic structure is necessary for the tournament to take place.

Back in 2018, the Women’s T20 challenge got underway with a solitary game between Trailblazers and Supernovas at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. In 2019, Velocity, led by Mithali Raj, became the third participant. In 2020, the event had to be sifted to Sharjah where Smriti Mandhana’s Trailblazers became the champions.

In 2021, the Women’s T20 Challenge had to be shelved in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the Indian women’s is currently busy playing in a bilateral, ODI, Test and T20I series against Meg Lanning’s Australia.

There are two three areas where BCCI would like to improve, says Saba Karim

Karim, who was a part of BCCI General Manager – Cricket Operations, said that the men’s IPL has been a massive success purely because a number of players have emerged from the domestic level over the years.

“Going forward, yes, BCCI will be looking at organising women’s IPL but I also feel that it is more important to have very stronger domestic structure so that it keeps throwing up younger talent who can play at that level,” Karim was quoted as saying on Sony Sports.

“And, I mean why men’s IPL was a success because the kind of structure the kind of talent that was coming up from the domestic level. And I think a similar kind of thing needs to take place for women cricket also,” he stated.

“So, there are two three areas where I’m sure BCCI would like to improve in terms of having more number of matches, more tournaments, maybe introducing a multi-day domestic tournament. That will really help the younger talent to come through,” Karim added.

In the last two years, Indian women’s team has also seen plenty of talents coming through. The likes of Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia, Shafali Verma and Meghna Singh have grabbed the limelight with their respective skills.